Maybe When You Die
by Crimson-Juno
Summary: She was born with the ability to see things of the spiritual sense in the reflections they cast. But ever since the game, it's gone from weird to deadly. Her reflection wants her dead, and demons and spirits want to use her for their own purposes. CHPT 3!
1. Chapter One

(This chapter is just to introduce my main character, so don't be outraged when you don't recognize anything just yet. If you notice any obvious spelling or grammar mistakes, don't kill me. I finished writing this a 3:30 in the morning. Also, it's very long for some reason, so please don't kill me for that too. It will get good I promise! Oh, and please be so kind as to review! Thx! Off to bed... grumble Stupid work in the morning...)

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**Chapter One: It Began With a Dare...**

"It's your turn Yoshe!" Six little girls sat around a low table laden with empty soda cans and open candy packages. Magazines depicting older girls in their latest fashions also littered the table, as well as nail polish, lipstick, and whatever else the 10-year-olds could find that they thought made them look older. Five of them giggled as the smallest of the group narrowed her ebony eyes in suspicion. Her piercing gaze was fixed on the one who had spoken, a skinny girl with dark brown hair cut in an almost boyish fashion. The girl smiled mischievously.

"Don't glare at me! It's your turn fair and square. "

"I know it's my turn, that's not why I'm glaring at you." Yoshe said indignantly. "It's just that you've got that look in your eyes, meaning you've thought of a dare I'm _really_ not going to like." The girls giggled again. A tall girl at the other end of the table with long black hair clapped her hands together excitedly.

"This is gonna be good! You always think of good things Kiko!"

"Yeah!" Agreed the girl next to her. "Make Yoshe do something really embarrassing!"

"Shut up Akako!" Yoshe yelled, throwing a pillow across the room.

"Oh, it's a good one all right." Said Kiko, a sly look in her golden brown eyes. All the girls except for Yoshe leaned toward Kiko in anticipation, as if awaiting a verdict. "Yoshe, you have to call up Genyo Ozawa and tell him what color of underwear you have on!" All the girls practically fell over laughing, as Yoshe's eyes widened and her normally pale cheeks flared a bright crimson.

"No way!" She yelled ferverently. "That's' the worst dare ever! I won't do it! I absolutely refuse!"

Genyo Ozawa was the single most popular boy at Mudabachi Elementary School. He was one of those stereotypical types that all the girls liked: good at sports, smart, and cute. Kiko thought him to be stuck up, whiney, and boring, and didn't understand the heartsickness that afflicted most of her female classmates. Yoshe happened to have a very big crush on him.  
Kiko stood calmly and walked over to the phone. She picked it up and practically shoved it in Yoshe's face. Yoshe shook her head aggressively, her pigtails whooshing back and forth like whips.

"You can't refuse!" Laughed the girl next to her. "We all have to do something stupid! I had to eat a cigarette butt!" Yoshe looked at the girl, her face still a bright red.

"That's nothing compared to this! This is mortifying! This is the worst thing-" She was stopped short when Kiko slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Oh come on already!" She said as she dialed dream boy's number on the phone and put it up to Yoshe's ear. "It's already ringing, so now you have no choice!" Yoshe's glare could probably have melted flesh and bone alike as she held the phone up to her ear. Kiko had to hold a hand over her own mouth to keep herself from laughing out loud at her friend's expression. The other girls giggled quietly to each other as they waited for Genyo to answer his phone. All of them hushed instantly when they heard a voice on the other line.

"Um, uh... hih Genyo. This is Yoshe Sakamoto from school. What? Oh, I'm fine. How are, um, you doing? That's good. Well actually, I wanted to tell you that... that um... I'm a... I'm wearing... p-pink underwear!" There was an eruption of laughter when she spoke those last words. Yoshe clicked the phone off and chucked it at Kiko's head.

"There! You happy! Now he probably thinks I'm a total idiot!" The phone struck Kiko on her shoulder, but it didn't seem to have any effect on her. She, along with the rest of the girls, was laughing nearly to the point of tears. Yoshe fumed miserably as she waited for the din to die down. When it finally did, she pointed a condemning finger at Kiko, her glare still fully intact.

"Now it's your turn missy!" Kiko just shrugged and took a sip from her grape soda.

"I don't care. Pick something for me to do. Nothing really bothers me that much." The moment the words left her mouth, and she saw the look of cocky inspiration on Yoshe's usually docile features, Kiko knew she might _actually _be in trouble.

"Oh really Miss Tough. Then you won't have any trouble playing a little game of Bloody Mary in the bathroom..._ mirror_." Yoshe's eyes gleamed triumphantly as she saw Kiko's face pale slightly at the word 'mirror'. The other girls glanced at each other.

"What's bloody Mary?" Asked the tall girl. Kiko swallowed and tried to keep her face passive. She didn't have any idea what "Bloody Mary" was either, but it's obviously having something to do with mirrors put her immediately on edge.

"It's a game I heard about from someone at school. You have to turn all the lights off in the bathroom and stand in front of the mirror. When your eyes adjust, you have to stare at your reflection in the mirror and say "Bloody Mary" three times." A couple of the girls glanced at each other nervously. "It's said that when you get to the third time, Bloody Mary herself will jump out of the mirror and grab you." A few of the girls gasped and began chattering to each other about what a scary dare that was. Kiko paled even more, and her illusion of self-confidence flickered for just a moment. Yoshe caught it and laughed tauntingly.

"I got you! You're scared to do this dare, admit it! But it's payback time, so don't even think about refusing!" Kiko shook her head and smiled slyly back at her friend. Her color had not improved.

"I'm not afraid to do it." She stood up and headed toward the bathroom door. The girls got up and started to follow her.

"This sounds scary Kiko." Said a girl who had gone a bit overboard with the lipstick."What if Bloody Mary grabs you and we never see you again?" The tall girl rolled her eyes.

"Yeah right Mei. It's just some stupid story someone made up. It's not real." Kiko nodded agreement to reassuring comments that she barely heard over the pounding of her own heart as she opened the bathroom door. She flicked on the light and looked inside. The mirror was a small one that doubled as a cabinet over the sink. She turned around to face her friends again. Yoshe stood at the front of the group with her arms folded across her chest. She smiled sweetly, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"If you aren't scared, then this should be no problem right?"Kiko's stomach tightened in a knot inside of her. Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she smiled again in the same self-assured way.

"Of course. No problem at all." With that, she walked into the bathroom. Slowly, she turned to face the mirror. She wanted to close her eyes, but knew that all the girls were watching her with rapt attention. She could still see Yoshe gloating from the doorway, and her almost fear-filled mind made room for irritation.  
_  
Dang it. _She thought. _Why did I ever tell you that I was afraid of mirrors? I should have known that you would use it against me! Well, actually I did tell you in the first grade, when I didn't' t think it would matter. But still. Oh, this makes me mad. But I guess this is actually what I get for playing by my own rules..._

She swallowed down nothing in her dry throat as she peered into the mirror. There. The first one. Her eyes flicked to the top right corner of the mirror just in time to see a tiny, glowing red dot disappear. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment before she could look again.

This is what she saw every time she looked in the mirror. Shadows. Glowing lights. Things people told her weren't really there. She didn't get why no one else could see them, but when her parents began to talk about some kind of therapy for her, she stopped telling everyone about them. But that didn't make them go away. She still saw them almost every time. Sometimes they formed enough to makes discernable shapes and figures, sometimes even faces. Those were the ones that terrified her. The kind that kept her up at night sometimes, their images popping into her nightmares. So far this time all she had seen was the little annoying glowy kind that didn't like to be looked at. Most of them were like that, but the glowing ones were the fastest. She took another deep breath and looked back up into the mirror.

Her last thought before Yoshe turned the lights off was one that she had thought thousands of times throughout her young life.

_ What are they?_

Then the room plunged into darkness. Her eyes adjusted and she found herself peering into her own fear-filled eyes. She took another deep breath, then saw herself open her mouth to speak.

"Bloody Mary." She heard a few hushed remarks form her friends outside the door. She breathed in, then let the breath out slowly.

"Bloody Mary." There was more whispering, but Kiko was concentrating to hard on trying to ignore the strange shadow forming directly behind her in the mirror. She felt something almost like a tickle in her mind, like something was crawling around inside. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as the shadow continued to grow. Every instinct told her to run out of the bathroom. Something about this was not right. But all her friends were watching, and she was almost done. She watched her own eyes widen as she took in another deep breath.

"Bloody Mary." What happened next was only in a span of about five seconds. The tickle in her mind was replaced with a searing vice. Her hands tightly gripped the sink as the overwhelming pain engulfed her terrified mind in flames. She was still watching herself in the mirror, and could see the shadow that had been behind her wrapping itself around her. Mortified, and frozen solid from pain and shock, she watched as the shadow seeped into her.Then the mirror shattered, sending shards of glass flying across the tiny room. Kiko was thrown back against the wall and crumpled to the floor.

There was only a feeling of numbness in her body and mind before she slipped away into a darkness that no light switch could ever reproduce.

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Kiko awoke hours later to a rather irritating beeping sound that repeated itself about every second. She opened leaden eyes to a world of gray shadows. She was laying down on something soft, and covered with a warm blanket. She looked up to see a screen with little green lines zigzagging across it to the sound of the beep. A moment of confusion crossed her mind before she realized she was in a hospital bed. She sat up with a groan as several spots on her body burned dully. She looked to see that she covered in bandages.

_ The glass. _She remembered. The image of the shattering mirror flitted across her mind. _What happened?_

She swung herself sideways as if to get out of bed. Instantly pain flared up in her head and a feeling of dizziness caused her to fall back down onto the bed. She gasped aloud as the pain brought back her memory. Yoshe. The dare. The mirror. The shadow. Bloody Mary. The pain. The pain...

She wriggled herself back into the position she had originally been in and laid her head down onto the pillow. She placed a hand on her throbbing forehead. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly in a vein attempt to stop the flow of hot tear that welled up in her eyes. She sobbed quietly to herself, in pain and confused about what had happened.

"Pathetic aren't you."

Kiko's eyes shot open and she took her hand away from her forehead. She scanned the dark room for the source of the voice, but saw no one. The room was empty.

"Um.. who's there?" She asked in a quiet voice. She realized her throat was very dry. When no one answered right away, she looked down on the side of the bed for a call button. She had seen people do that in the movies. She found a button labeled 'NURSE' and pressed it.

"You can't be very old. Around ten maybe?"

Kiko looked up again, this time fear making it's way back into her thoughts.

"Who's there?" She asked more forcefully. Again there was no answer. The thought of a ghost made Kiko feel even more exhausted. She laid her head back down on her pillow and closed her eyes tightly to wait for the nurse.

"Murata Tokiko?" Her eyes flew open again, but this time she found herself looking at a pleasant faced young woman in a nurse's outfit. "My name is Emi. I'm your nurse right now. What did you need dear?"

"I could use some water." She said quietly. Emi smiled and walked over to a small table with a plastic water pitcher on it. She poured some water into a small cup and handed it to Kiko. She took it and drank it down. She muttered a thanks, then handed back the cup.

"Will that be all dear? I'm going to go get your parents in a moment. They're in the lobby." Kiko didn't feel like having to explain everything to her parents right now, but she was to exhausted to protest. Instead, she asked Emi to turn on the lights.

"Um, how well does sound travel here? I heard someone talking to me earlier." Emi stopped just short of the light switch and gave her a worried look.

"These rooms are fairly sound proof dear. You must have imagined it." Kiko looked down at her lap in embarrassment. She didn't want anyone to think she was crazy. But what was that voice. Emi flicked the light switch and Kiko closed her eyes to the sudden brightness.

"You're not very bright either."

Kiko's head snapped up painfully at the remark, and found herself looking into a mirror across the room from her. She stared at herself as her eyes widened in fear. The same golden brown eyes looked back at her with cold calmness, a glint of amusement in their depths.  
It _was_ her reflection. The same color of eyes. The same short brown hair. The same rounded face. Identical in every way, a mirror image. Yet her reflection was smiling at her when she herself was not smiling. In fact, it was _smirking_ at her.

"Pathetic _and _stupid." Said her reflection. It's eyes narrowed, and it's grin widened wickedly. "That's just my luck."

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(If you read this, well, thanks for reading! I will actually update now that I have more free time aka Senioritis... sweatdrop ) 


	2. Chapter Two

OMG... it's been sooooooo long since i first posted this story... anywways sorry this chapter is boring, and I'm sorry there still aren't any recognizable characters yet. Next chapter I promise! Well, R&R, and please tell me about errors... but no flames. Read it or don't, just don't be mean. Thx! .

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**Chapter 2: Kiko no more...**

The rain outside made it extremely difficult for Tokiko to see anything at all through her bedroom window. She moved her head forward until her nose was just touching the glass and exhaled onto it, leaving a foggy cloud on the smooth cold surface. She dreamily traced her finger through the rapidly disappearing cloud, writing the characters that spelled out her name. Sighing deeply, she watched the last bits of her name disappear, then looked out her window and across the street.

They said she was crazy. Her teachers, her friends, everyone. Even her parents had thought something was wrong with her, but they had just attributed it to the stresses of growing up. She told them she heard voices sometimes, even about some of the faces she saw in the mirror. She tried telling them about what had really happened that night with the mirror, but they never listened. They never took her seriously.

Then, nearly three years ago, she was attacked. Not physically, but in her dreams. All she really remembered was waking up in her bed screaming. Her parents came in to find her grasping her head, blood pouring from her mouth; the effect of bursting a blood vessel in her throat from screaming so much. When she regained consciousness, she told them someone had been in her dreams yelling at her. Now her parents had no choice but to ignore her. Sadly, they went about the wrong way to help her. A series of long, painful tests followed, each one coming back with the same result: nothing. Anti-psychotics didn't seem to work, and shock therapy just made it worse.

Through the years, many more attacks occurred, all of them being attributed to "mental stress" or "a chemical imbalance in the brain". Tokiko knew they were just making things up because they had absolutely no clue. After each mental assault, they would conduct more tests; each one more uncomfortable and arduous than the last. They put her in a mental ward for two months to undergo further testing and experimental treatments. Every medication under the sun was crammed down her throat with the hope that one would solve their problem. Yet even after all that, none of the doctors or specialists could find out what was wrong with her.

Tokiko knew what was wrong. The problem was that they never listened to her. After two years of having her brain analyzed over and over, and being subjected to torturous testing, Tokiko stopped telling her parents when she heard the voices. She learned how to keep most of the attacks under control, or at least enough so that she could hide them from her parents. The less she told, the less testing was done. Her cheeks began to gain back their color, and her emaciated body began to fill out. After a while, the doctors announced that she was actually getting better, that one of the treatments must have finally worked. Tokiko also knew this was bull; she was getting better because she had ceased to be a human guinea pig. The medications lessened, and the painful examinations were cut down to a few routine blood tests a month and a few sessions with a psychologist.

They said they had never had such a hard case to crack as Tokiko's. They told her and her parents that the problem seemed to have solved itself; that they had never officially been able to pinpoint Tokiko's disorder.

But Tokiko could. She knew exactly what was wrong with her. It had all started with that night seven years ago, when an innocent dare turned into the worst day of her life. The day _she_ appeared in the mirror…. the day _Rinsha _showed up.

"Damn it Kiko, aren't you going to eat anything this morning? How can you ignore your hunger like that?"

Tokiko glared at the slight reflection of herself the window made. Her reflection had a pitiful expression on it's face (or on her face rather) and was glaring back at Tokiko with the same amount of hatred, lower lip protruded in mock pout. Tokiko winced at the whiney tone in Rinsha's voice.

"Shut up. I just don't feel like eating this morning." The evil twin looked as though she was about to say something, but Tokiko cut her off. "Absolutely nothing you say to me will make me eat, ok? So just shut up." Rinsha's glare intensified and she crossed her arms over her chest, turning her head away from Tokiko with a huff. Tokiko rolled her eyes and turned away from the window. She didn't feel like dealing with Rinsha right now, let alone look at her.

She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the window. She listened to rain with a melancholy look on her pale face. The rain droplets that rolled down the window cast strange, twisted shadows on the white walls of her room, like snakes slithering towards her from every direction. When she finally opened her eyes, a few tears rolled out from the corners of her eyes, mimicking the snakes as they made their way down her cheeks.

Her life had steadily become a living nightmare since the night of the sleepover. She had lost all of her friends, and even, she sometimes suspected, the complete love of her parents. She was behind in school due to her long absences while in the hospital, and most of her energy was spent simply keeping control of he own mind. She was no longer the talkative little tom-boy of her youth; now she was just a mentally troubled youth who just happened to have a demon living inside her head. And just as her name on the window had disappeared, she too would one day completely disappear. Leaving her life in the hands of the one she hated most in the world.

"Rinsha," she asked, her voice cracking with emotion. "are you ever going to leave me alone?" There was a pause in which Tokiko knew the demon was smirking at her desperate question. Then an eerie laughter filled Tokiko's head.

"I dunno Kiko. Maybe…. maybe when you die."

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Thanks for reading! Hope you liked, and yes, there will be Yu Yu characters in here eventually... :sweatdrop: 


	3. Chapter Three

OMG I'm back from the dead apparently. OO I doubt that now that I'm posting this months later, that anybody even cares about this. I wouldn't blame anyone. All I can say, if anyone who read this before, is….. gomen. Gomen nasai. When I started college, I went through some pretty bad times… from friends attempting suicide, to my own depression. This fic got lost somewhere in the void… only to be found again today while I was cleaning out my computer. I re-read it, and decided it wasn't so terrible, and remembered all the cool ideas I had for it. So I'm giving it another shot. :sigh:

Anyways, enough ranting. I hope this is ok….. Still does have much relevance to YYH, but, it should soon. Thank you. :bows:

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, but Tokiko, Rinsha, and Yoshe are MINE. You can't have them. :glare:

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**Chapter Three****: Bad day…**

Tokiko startled awake at the sound of loud knocking on the front door. Still slightly shaken up from being so abruptly pulled out of the deepest sleep she'd had in a long time, she slowly rolled over to see what time it was. The bright red electronic numbers on her alarm clock made her squint slightly. 5:30. Another series of rapid pounds on the door sounded, echoing through the apartment and straight into Tokiko's room via opened door. Tokiko closed her eyes, a look of annoyance on her face. She was going to kill Yoshe for waking her up so early.

She slowly sat up and pulled her covers off, simultaneously swinging her feet over the edge to put on her slippers. A short walk down the unreasonably cold hallway brought her into the kitchen, where a blinking red light caught Tokiko's attention. There was a message on the answering machine. Tokiko was about to walk over and check it when the door was nearly thrown off it's hinged.

"KIKO! GET UP RIGHT NOW OR I'M DISOWNING YOU!" The banging continued with even more vigor if that was possible. Tokiko turned around abruptly and walked to the door.

"My God," she said as she undid the chain lock at the top of the door. "calm down you lunatic. My whole buildings probably awake now." She opened the door and was met the most unpleasant sight for sleep puffy eyes. Yoshe was wearing a bright yellow jogging sweat-jacket and pants covered in various pictures of tropical flowers. Not to mention her hair was dyed neon blue, pink, and orange. Tokiko winced as the assaulting colors got to her brain, and glared back at her with as much strength as she could muster this early.

"They should be awake anyways. Look at what time it is!" She thrust her wrist watch in front of Tokiko's face, in turn receiving a sharp swat to the arm. "OWW! What the hell! Jesus Kiko, you are NOT a morning person."

Tokiko clamped both of her hands over her ears at Yoshe's outburst. The door two apartments down from Tokiko's swung open, and a very irate looking old man stepped out. He scanned the hallway with weary, red-rimmed eyes until he spotted the multicolored Yoshe. His eyes narrowed, and he looked like he was about to say something, but Yoshe cut him off.

"What do you want? Maybe you should take a picture it lasts longer! Mind your own business! Don't make me come over the-"

"I'm so sorry Mr. Hirotaka." Tokiko quietly interjected, grabbing Yoshe's arm and forcing her through the door. Mr. Hirotaka just turned shaking his head, mumbling something about "kids having no respect…".

Tokiko turned at the doorway and closed the door. She leaned against it wearily. She did not want to start the morning like this. Behind her, Yoshe was busy in the kitchen, doing God knows what. At the sound of a pot crashing to the ground, Tokiko was roused from her daydream and turned around.

"Yoshe, please don't destroy my house." She slowly walked over the counter, running a hand through her shoulder length brown hair. She sat down at a kitchen stool and watched Yoshe crack an egg into a mixing bowl.

"What are you doing?" Yoshe jerked her head around so fast Tokiko jumped. Her plethora of braids swooshed around her neck.

"I'm making eggs! You like 'em scrambled?" Tokiko rolled her eyes. _She asks me _after_ she's already started making them._

"Sure. I guess. I don't usually eat American style breakfasts." Yoshe shrugged and turned back around, mixing the eggs with a fork. Tokiko yawned and put her head on her arms resting on the counter. This had not been her morning. She hadn't gotten to sleep last night until around two so she could finish a VERY late term paper. Her parents had been gone on a cruise to "relax their minds", leaving the poor cooking-challenged Tokiko to fend for herself. She hadn't eaten lunch or dinner the previous day, and her stomach was making it's disapproval of this quite clear. This morning had been one from hell. Yoshe was her only good friend, but her endless supply of energy and loud mouth made her the last person you wanted to see first thing in the morning.

The smell of the cooking eggs as Yoshe pored them into the frying pan reached Tokiko's nostrils, and her stomach groaned in longing. At least she was making breakfast.

_I guess this morning could have been a lot worse _Tokiko thought. She_ could be awake right now._

_"Why, Kiko. Why? Tell me why this loudmouth in here this early?" _

Tokiko popped her head up and rubbed her eyes with a sigh. _Speak of the devil… _Rinsha was awake. And she did NOT sound happy. She was a demon who prized her sleep very much, and Yoshe's rude awakening would probably put her in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

"_Getting a taste of your own medicine Rinsha? Or have you forgotten that it's usually _you _who wakes me up early every day, making me cranky and tired?"_

Rinsha didn't answer, but Tokiko could feel her displeasure at being back talked when she had no comebacks of her own this early. It was a small victory, but Tokiko couldn't help but smiling at Rinsha's humiliation.

"Here you go Kiki! The toast will be ready in a second." Yoshe said, setting the plate of eggs in front of Tokiko and spinning away back into the kitchen. Tokiko picked up the fork that had been provided and happily took her first bite. _Not bad. _she thought as she loaded her fork up again.

"Hey Kik, you got a message ya know. Wanna hear it?" Tokiko looked over at the answering machine, the obnoxious little red light still blinking.

"It's just my parents probably." she said, returning to her plate. "But sure, go ahead and play it." Yoshe practically skipped over to the machine and pressed the button with some much ferocity that Tokiko wouldn't have been surprised if it had broken it. A loud beep resounded, followed by a monotonous mechanical voice.

"You have one new message. Saturday, April 18, 4:59 a.m." _Just missed it. _Tokiko thought, shoveling another forkful into her mouth. Her mother's overly loud voice cam blaring out of the speaker, making Tokiko wince.

"Hi sweetie! It's mommy! Well duh, right? Hahaha! Anyways, your father and I just wanted to make sure you were ok, and see how your term paper came out. We both have our cells off, so we'll just call you back later, 'kay? Bye bye sweetie! Kisses!" The machine beeped, signaling the messages end. Yoshe convulsed dramatically.

"Geez, what's she so happy at four in the morning for?" Tokiko looked up at her friend and rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smile slightly at her friends obliviousness. She was about to take another bite when something dawned on her.

"Hey Yoshe, that message said that it was Saturday right?" Yoshe looked thoughtful, then shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, I guess. Why?" Tokiko's eye twitched involuntarily, and she pushed her half finished breakfast away from her. She crossed her arms over her chest and took in a deep breath, preparing for the verbal onslaught she was about to deliver.

"_You mean she got us up early this morning for NOTHING?" _Rinsha seethed in her head. Tokiko sighed mentally. This really was going to be one of those days…

**Later that day**

Tokiko dodged another puddle in the street, the two heavy grocery bags she held threatening to knock her off balance at her jerky movements. After Yoshe's "mistake" this morning, Tokiko had decided to make the most of the day and do some much needed shopping. Her fridge was practically void of food, and she would be damned before she could stand to have Yoshe cook for her again, whether the food had been good or not.

Rinsha had thankfully been quiet most of the day, which Tokiko took to be her catching up on missed sleep. _Lucky…_ she thought a little bitterly as she turned the corner and made her way to the rail station. There were no stores close to her house, so Tokiko had to take a train to get to the nearest one.

Inwardly cursing the genius who had decided _not _to build a grocery store in her neighborhood, Tokiko climbed the short flight of stairs onto the outdoor platform. She was so lost in thought when she got to the top that she didn't notice that the person in front of her had suddenly stopped. She plowed straight into a man wearing a dark business suit, losing her grip on the bags of groceries and falling backwards onto her rear. She winced as a sharp pain rippled up her spine, and blushed a bright red when she realized everyone around her was looking at her.

The man she had bumped into barely looked back at her before continuing down the platform, rudely not offering her hand up. Tears threatened as she noticed the carton of milk she had bought laying on the ground wit a large white puddle forming around it, and a group of schoolgirls nearby giggled nastily at her.

_Damn it! And here I was beginning to think this day might not turn out so bad. Why can't anything, even going to and from the store, just go easily for me?_

"Excuse me, do you need a hand up?"

Tokiko suddenly froze as the warm, friendly voice registered in her mind. _It can't... be..._ Blushing even deeper, she began to raise her head... _It can't..._slowly she lifted her glossy eyes up…. _That would just be too… cruel……_and found a pair of emerald ones looking back at her. _Oh my god…_

"Are you… alright?"

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Guess who this is? heart I wanted again to thank the people who read this fic months ago, as well as any people who read it now. I'm still figuring myself out as a writer, so bear with me. Sayonara! 


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